Saturday, November 16, 2013

Review And Commentary on The Free Mandate Archive - Bruxelles-class Battlecruiser From Sine Nomine Publishing For Your Stars Without Number Campaign Or Retroclone OSR Space Opera


Grab It Right
HERE

Recently I had some PC messing about and exploring the wreck of a Bruxelles-class battlecruiser most of the weaponry on board was pre Scream and useless but the thing was infested with large alien parasites and space born zombies. The team abadoned the wreck and imploded the thing with antimatter charges to keep it from infecting a near by system. There were clues to a forgotten fleet of these wonderful ghosts from a forgotten age.
This is one fine seven page pdf detailing a forgotten classic from another age along with everything you need to inject these incredible ships into your space opera campaign. Here's the write up and go over from Drivethrurpg :

An Iron Ghost from a Dead Age...

The Bruxelles-class battlecruiser was one of the mainstays of the ancient Terran Mandate, a regular sentinel along the ragged borders of the core and the deep colonial wilderness of the frontier. Its fearsome guns brought peace to squabbling worlds and rebuked raiders and alien interlopers with radioactive fire. When the Scream washed over the human empire, countless Bruxelles-class ships were left lost and isolated on the fringes of human space. Many died in vain attempts to get back to Old Terra, but a few such corpses still linger in the dark between worlds, waiting for some reckless soul to drag them back to a bright and terrible life.
This free Mandate Archive gives you the details on the Bruxelles class of battlecruiser- its history, function, standard crew complements, and statistics for the free Stars Without Number role-playing game. A half-dozen plot seeds are also provided, each one revolving around this ancient engine of war. Finally, several examples of pretech ship weaponry are given with which to terrify the feeble heirs of the Mandate's lost glory.

Using The 
Bruxelles-class Battlecruiser
 In Your Old School Space Opera 

Mandate Archive: Bruxelles-class Battlecruiser

Some caution must be advised before plugging these wonder craft into a space opera campaign. Everything you need to run these as a DM is right here. Everything about the  Bruxelles class of battlecruiser- its history, function, standard crew complements, and statistics and these things are very rare indeed. Rumors of one of these craft should have every salvage outfit from dozen systems running. These ships are like dragons in OD&D And AD&D games heard about but rare to very rare. The weaponry they have can boil worlds, bake colonies, and are representative of a 'lost age'. 
There are a boat load of stories that can be worked around these ships, crews of specialists and salvage experts could be worked up to deal with these ships, and with the story seeds they might be the white whales or unicorns of a SWN or Space Opera.
 Another option that I've used with these battle cruisers is to have them be under the control of a rogue A.I. and more then slightly insane. These deadly craft might be cruising the space lanes like Great White Sharks picking off lesser ships, and terrifying worlds.
Then there are the wrecks and parts issues that comes from finding one of these glorious ships. Do you part it out, try to find other wrecks for parts, or deal with the horrid task of doing recovering of such a vessel?  The 
Bruxelles-class Battlecruiser can provide endless sources of adventure ideas and opportunities for a clever DM. This ship is both adventure and treasure in itself. Couple this seven page delight with Relics of the Lost available right over HERE and you've got a interstellar death trap and vault waiting for adventurers.
Highly recommended and grab this one. 

4 comments:

  1. I was wondering if you were still running your SWN Campaign. Good Stuff!

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  2. I haven't stopped but I've had to refuel some of the material for my players. In the coming weeks I'll be putting up much, much, more SWN goodness. Lots more to come Bill. Sometimes you've got to change stuff around when it comes to tables, adventures, and items if folks get used to seeing the same old same old. I've had to do a bit of new writing for the campaign.
    Thanks for the comment!

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  3. Looking forward to seeing what you've worked up.

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  4. I'm going pretty quick and I've got get the time to put it up here. An upcoming campaign of Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea has been taking up a lot of time.

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